Starla Kaye: Their Lady Gloriana.

Starla Kaye is here today and I asked her to Share a favourite scene from the book and tell us why it is a favourite. Comment on Starla’s excellent blog and you could win a piece of medieval style jewelry!

The following is a scene that I had fun writing and feel shows off Gloriana’s warm and understanding nature, as well as her adaptability and curiosity…and her ability to surprise and unnerve one of the heroes.

He avoided looking directly at her and stretched out beside her, on top of the linens. “I’m fine. Just a bit sore from riding so hard today.”

He shifted again, gave another quiet moan.

This time she turned toward him. “Is there something I can do? Some salve I can apply?” The thought of touching him in any manner sent shivers through her. Yet she didn’t want him to suffer, even if he’d made her suffer.

But he was already half asleep. He mumbled, “‘Tis Rowan’s fault. He rode me too hard.”

“What?” She didn’t understand. Rowan had returned much earlier and had come to check on her. He’d told her that he’d caught up with Thomas. They’d talked, he’d said. But he hadn’t looked her in the eye, either. She nibbled on the corner of her lower lip, pondering Rowan’s odd reaction. She studied Thomas more closely. Something was odd, something that niggled at her curious nature.

She lightly touched Thomas’s face to capture his attention. He looked wearily at her.

“Did you and Rowan…” Her face flamed but she pressed on, “Did you suck cock? Like I… like I saw yesterday.”

“Good God!” He sat bolt upright in bed, his eyes wide in shock. He also winced and quickly lay back down. “No, we did not ‘suck cock’ as you so delicately put it.”

But she knew there was more to what had happened between he and Rowan today. Something that had to do with his obvious discomfort. “Then what do you mean ‘he rode me too hard’?”

She nodded. “Aye, but you were partially asleep.” She sat up and looked down at him, determined to get an answer. “What did you mean?”

He was silent for several minutes, his face contorted in deep thought. Finally he heaved a heavy sigh and met her gaze. “You already know that Rowan and I…” He struggled with what to say. “That we…”

Gloriana was getting impatient. “Aye. You have relations, of a sort. It does not bother me.” She pinned him with a prodding gaze. “Explain about this business of ‘riding you too hard.'”

He squeezed his eyes shut, muttered something, and then faced her again. “We sometimes do far more than as you witnessed.”

“Far more?” She cocked her head and studied him. She still thought about how she’d observed the two powerful men engaged in a sexual act that she’d previously found appalling. At least it had been with Geoffrey. Did Thomas mean that he, too, sucked on Rowan’s shaft? What else could two men do together?

She furrowed her brow trying to figure it out. When she couldn’t, she asked, “I cannot understand this riding matter. Nor this far more issue.” She found that she was intrigued by whatever happened intimately between Thomas and Rowan.

“I really don’t want to discuss this, Gloriana.” He tried to roll to his other side, but gave a quiet hiss as he moved.

She pulled him to his back once more, frowning at the flinch of pain that crossed his face. “I will tell no one, my lord, I promise. But I wish to understand. Especially when I see that you are in obvious discomfort.”

He clenched his jaw and appeared to gnash his teeth before he bit out, “We fuck. All right? This time he fucked me. Hard.”

She reeled in astonishment, blinking in confusion. “You mean he…” She gaped at him and then glanced toward his slowly growing cock. “You mean he put his rod inside you? But I don’t understand. How can that be?” She truly couldn’t imagine how such a thing was possible.

His patience had clearly reached an end. He rolled to his side again and pointed to his butt crack. “He drove his rod into my ass. Fast. Hard. Mercilessly.” He glanced at her over his shoulder with a sour expression. “Are you satisfied now?”

Instead of being satisfied, she was more curious, worried as well. Before he could resist, she pushed him to his stomach and gently parted his butt cheeks.

He tried to bat her hands away. “What are you doing, woman? Stop it!”

She ignored him and studied his ass. In truth, it was a very nice ass, firm. Unlike hers which was far too flabby, in her opinion. Her face heated at such thoughts. “It looks very sore, husband.”

She promptly climbed off the bed and hurried to the trunk where she kept herbs and salves.

“Now what are you doing? Come back to bed.”

She planted her hands on her hips and snapped, “You need something to soothe the pain.”

“Good God, Gloriana! You are not going to apply one of your healing salves to my ass. Forget it. I’ll be fine on the morrow.”

He got up, scooped her into his arms, and lay her on the bed. Then he stretched out on his stomach once more, growling, “Go. To. Sleep.”

“I only want to help.” She gently touched his buttocks.

“Leave my ass alone.” He pushed her hand away and planted his pillow over his bottom.

She huffed at his impossible attitude. Fine, if he wanted to suffer needlessly tonight, he could. But she’d check on his ass on the morrow. If it wasn’t better by then, she’d apply her salve no matter how much he grouched about it.

Think medieval times when honorable men must do what is required of them. Thomas Lancaster, a widower with bad memories of marriage and a young son he barely knows, is a hardened knight loyal to his king. In reward for his efforts fighting in the Crusades, King Edward gives him Middlemound Castle to hold for the crown. But he must marry the beautiful young widow of the castle’s previous lord.

Lady Gloriana Stewart suffered brutally in her first marriage and has no desire to marry again. She has no choice and must protect her people and obey her king. All she wants is for her new husband to give her a baby. Thomas refuses to even consider it.

Complicating the situation is Sir Rowan Montgomery, Thomas’s first knight, friend, and lover. Complicating the problem even more, Gloriana has feelings for both her new husband and for Rowan.

Starla Kaye has worn many hats professionally and as a writer. She works part-time with her husband (who believes he is the model example for each of her heroes, “yes, honey, of course you are”) in an accounting firm. A gerontologist by degree, she volunteers in the community with a very active group of senior adults, who provide her with story ideas for senior adult romances she occasionally likes to write for fun. She is a multi-published author on-line in e-book and Print-On-Demand book form, writing as both Starla Kaye and S. K. Fero for Black Velvet Seductions, Blushing Books, Decadent Publishing, and Red Rose Publishing.

Mary, this scene was fun to write and totally surprised me. I basically plot and let my characters lead the way. Gloriana surprised me here with her daring and her determined caring. Thomas was definitely surprised, too.